Tanak Foundations-Concepts in Jeremiah-Chapter 38

Jer 38.1-28 tells us that some of the princes took offense at the words of Jeremiah and his prediction of the fall of the city and that they must surrender to Nebuchadnezzar in order to live. The officials go before the king to ask that Jeremiah be put to death, and the weak king doesn’t stand in their way. Jeremiah is arrested and put into a miry dungeon but is released before he dies, and this is also a picture of what happened to Yeshua at his arrest. Zedekiah has a private conversation with Jeremiah where he is again instructed about what to do, but Zedekiah fails to obey.

v 1…Now Shephatiah (Yehovah has judged) the son of Mattan (gift) and Gedaliah (Yehovah is great) the son of Peshur (freedom) and Yucal (Yehovah is able) the son of Shelemiah and the son of Malchiyah (Yehovah is my king) heard the words that Jeremiah was speaking to the people (to surrender and live), saying,

v 2…”Thus says the Lord (Yehovah), ‘He who stays in this city will die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans will live and have his own life as booty and stay alive (you had to do this by faith in the words of Yehovah and Jeremiah).’

v 3…Thus says the Lord, ‘This city will certainly be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it (these type of words made Jeremiah look like a traitor and sympathetic to the Chaldean cause).'”

v 4…Then the officials said to the king, “Now let this man be put to death, inasmuch as he is discouraging the men of war who are left in this city and all the people, by speaking such words to them; for this man is not seeking the well-being of this people, but rather their harm (these princes still clung to the words of the false prophets even with death at their door).”

v 5…So King Zedekiah said, “Behold, he is in your hands; for the king can do nothing to stop you (he was a weak king and Pontius Pilate said the same thing in Luke 23.24-25).”

v 6…Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiyah the king’s son, which was in the court of the guardhouse; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the cistern there was no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud (a type of the death of Yeshua-Psa 69.2,14).

v 7…But Eved-melech (servant of the king and a picture of the Ruach Ha Kodesh) the Ethiopian (Ethiopians were among the earliest believers in Yeshua-Acts 2.10, 41; 8.27-39), a eunuch (court official), while he was in the king’s palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. Now the king was sitting in the gate of Benjamin;

v 8…and Eved-melech went out from the king’s palace and spoke to the king (the servant of the king had compassion on him while the great men mocked), saying,

v 9…”My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet whom they have cast into the cistern; and he will die right where he is because of the famine, for there is no more bread in the city (they were wicked because Jeremiah could have died in the famine, but to do this was cruel).”

v 10…The the king (being weak again) commanded Eved-melech the Ethiopian, saying, “Take thirty (the number of resurrection) men from here under your authority, and bring up Jeremiah the prophet from the cistern before he dies.”

v 11…So Eved-melech (who is a picture of the Ruach Ha Kodesh who raised Yeshua from the dead) took the men under his authority and went into the king’s palace to a place beneath the storeroom (meaning “treasury” and a picture of Sheol-Rev 6.9-11; in Jewish thought, souls of the righteous are kept under the throne of God) and took from there worn-out clothes and worn-out rags and let them down by ropes into the cistern to Jeremiah (so filthy rags are taken by Eved-melech to Jeremiah from beneath the treasury of the king (our righteousness is seen as filthy rags-Isa 1.18, 4.4, 64.6; Jer 17.9; Zech 3.1-5).

v 12…Then Eved-melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, “Now put these worn-out clothes and rags under your armpits under the ropes (so the ropes don’t cut into Jeremiah’s flesh)”; and Jeremiah did so.

v 13…So they pulled Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of the cistern (a type of the resurrection of Yeshua) and Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guardhouse (where he was before).

v 14…Then King Zedekiah sent and had Jeremiah the prophet brought to him at the third entrance that is in the house of the Lord (reserved for the king; Israel determined positions by facing east, so south was at your right and north was on the left. West was behind, as in Gen 22.13, so east was the first entrance, south was the second, north was the third and west was the fourth); and the king said to Jeremiah, “I am going to ask you something; do not hide anything from me.”

v 15…Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I tell you, will you not certainly put me to death (he had reason to doubt him, and he had no word from Yehovah to say anything, he was being prudent here)? Besides, if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.”

v 16…But King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah in secret (not known to the princes), saying, “As the Lord (Yehovah) lives, who made this life (soul) for us (Zedekiah and Jeremiah’s), surely I will not put you to death nor will I give you over to the hand of these men who are seeking your life.”

v 17…Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘If you will indeed go out to the officers of the king of Babylon (in this scenario Nebuchadzezzar is like Yehovah who has the power of life and death), then you will live, this city will not be burned with fire, and you and your household will survive (this must be done in “emunah” or faith; by accepting a status beneath the grandiose visions of being king and his pride, it could save him and the kingdom, Jerusalem and the Temple; but Zedekiah will insist on having all three and he lost it all-Jer 21.8, 27.12-17).

v 18…But if you will not go out to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be given over to the hand of the Chaldeans, and they will burn it with fire, and you yourself will not escape from their hand.'”

v 19…Then King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I dread the Jews who have gone over to the Chaldeans (he feared man rather than Yehovah, and it will cost him), lest they (Babylonians) give me over into their hand and they abuse me (he threatened them and abused them for going over, now he is doing it).”

v 20…But Jeremiah said, “They will not give you over. Please obey the Lord in what I am saying to you, that it may go well with you and you may live.

v 21…But if you keep refusing to go out, this is the word which the Lord has shown me (the alternative):

v 22…’Then behold (see for yourself), all of the women who have been left in the palace of the king of Judah are going to be brought to the officers of the king of Babylon; and those women will say, “Your close friends (the false prophets) have misled and overpowered you (you were weak and should have listened); while your feet were sunk in mire (the problems he could not get out of), they turned back (the false prophets fled and abandoned him when troubles came).”

v 23…’They (Babylonians) will also bring out all your wives and your sons to the Chaldeans, and you yourself will not escape from their hand, but will be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned with fire,'”

v 24…Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no man know about these words and you will not die (he is protecting his own reputation).

v 25…But if the officials hear that I have talked with you and come to you and say to you, “Tell us now what you said to the king, and what the king said to you; do not hide it from us, and we will not put you to death;’

v 26…then you are to say to them, ‘I was presenting my petition before the king, not to make me return to the house of Yonaton to die there (he said this before in 37.20 so it was true).'”

v 27…Then all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him. So he reported to them in accordance to all these words which the king commanded (Jeremiah knew it was futile to give them any more warning as in v 17-23, so he did not volunteer any information); and they ceased speaking to him, since the conversation had not been overheard (but the two had been seen together).

v 28…So Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guardhouse until the day that Jerusalem was captured (as seen from Jer 39.14; this was the way the Lord protected him from all the chaos and violence when the city fell).

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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